Nintendo not bothered by NGP threat

Sony's recently announced Next Generation Portable and Nintendo's rival handheld the 3DS appeal to very different types of people.

That's the verdict of Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata, who responded to NGP-related questions during a quarterly earnings briefing today (thanks, Andriasang).
"They're trying to appeal to customers from a different direction than us," Iwata said. "The customers will decide which is correct."

Both units, however, are very much portable games consoles, and are set to go head-to-head this year.

When asked about the measures Nintendo will take to combat the NGP, Iwata replied in typically blunt fashion: "Nintendo is not the kind of company that thinks about how we oppose other company's product."

Meanwhile, Iwata described 3DS pre-orders as "going well", but emphasised the importance of continued sales rather than a "rocket start". Nintendo predicts it'll sell four million 3DS units by the end of March.

Nintendo will update the 3DS system's firmware at the end of may to beef up its wireless functionality and allow DS owners to transfer their internal software over to 3DS, Iwata confirmed.